Why is a Solid Design Important for your Business in 2021?

Design Best Practices Can Let Your Business Flourish

Good design looks great and sounds good, but, does it really matter? Can you actually measure the value appropriate design creates, is it actually worth the investment? Does prioritizing design best practices generate a positive impact for your business in the long run? Many people have been asking the very same question in all types of industries. Medical technology, consumer packaged goods, retail banking, digital services looking for user experience optimization, you name it!

Let’s take a look at some quotes and figures from industry leaders to see if this is actually the case:

• Mckinsey & Company published a research manifesting that companies who follow design best practices do extremely better than their peers. In fact, design focused firms deliver a revenue growth that is 32% higher and a shareholder return that is 56% higher on average.
• The Design Council, a UK based charity that champions inclusive and optimal design to improve lives, conducted a 10 year analysis of 64 company portfolios on the Financial Times Stock Exchange. They found that companies that prioritize design best practices do significantly better than their counterparts. Indeed, their performance is better at a range of about 200%.
• Malcolm Gladwell, the Canadian journalist and public speaker, argues for the solid difference design can make in his book called Blink. For instance, adding 15% more yellow to the green color in 7 Up’s packaging can lead to customers reporting it has more lemon or lime flavor, when the drink is unchanged. So, design elements can actually alter the reactions and experiences of users.

So, it is true; design does make a difference. But, how can you capitalize on good design practices to improve your business, product or services?

5 Ways in Which your Business can Benefit from Good Design

Design can determine the core of your brand image

Think of the most famous brands you’ve encountered throughout your life. The Coca Cola design, the P&G commercials, the Sprite, Nike and McDonalds branding: doubtless no one can forget these businesses. What makes them so memorable? Good design means the proper shaping of the appearance of a brand, from the logo to the choice of colors. Through effective design, brands can differentiate themselves from their competitors and create a brand image that will stick. For instance, it is proven that color impacts how vividly we remember names and products, increasing odds for environmental stimuli to be stored and retrieved later. So, choosing the right color can help your customers associate your brand with positive stimuli and remember it. Businesses should prioritize creating design plans and integrating best practices to ensure a striking, consistent and original brand image that will effectively help them reach their targets. Your brand value and the recognition of your name depends intimately on the way you approach design.

Good design can help create a positive brand impression for your customers

An average user decides on what they feel about a website in about 50 milliseconds. Indeed, over half of website visitors spend no more than 15 seconds on a website. Given how short it takes for users to gain an idea about a site and decide on whether they would like to stay, how can you optimize your initial impression so users do, in fact, stay? Over ¾ of customers say what matters for them in this case is design. If you create an initially engaging and attractive design, it is more than likely that your customers will interact more with your site. Indeed, audience members in this survey stated that the first thing they expect from products and services is engagement. Design helps you demonstrate that your brand can be trusted and your services are worth the attention.

Design can Help Improve your Customers’ Experiences with your Product and Services

User experience matters and should be prioritized, there is no question about it. Implementing optimal design practices allows you to significantly enhance user experience. Most users value aesthetics, and share that what captures their attention, keeps them engaged in the material and keep them coming back for more is, indeed, aesthetics. For more on why aesthetic design matters, check out this blog article. If you are in the process of implementing design forward thinking to boost user engagement, here are the three main UX features you should look out for:

1. Visceral: Your first impression is key!
2. Behavioral: Are your users enjoying the experience?
3. Reflective: What is the message that you are trying to convey to your users?

Communicate Better with Your Customers through Design

A brand’s sole purpose is not to sell; a brand usually comes to life with a primary objective of conveying a concept, idea, or, even, data, to a certain audience segment. The ability to represent a message and execute its proper delivery is never easy. That is why design plays an important role in explaining your message and portraying its importance through visual stimuli. Learn more on this here. Over 65% of people say they learn better through visual engagement. Further, it is tweets with images that receive 150% more engagement and retweets. Through optimal design practices, turn your message into your competitive advantage and ensure visual recognition of your brand, as well as the clarity of your brand persona.

Good Design can Enhances Visual Appeal

You attract the attention of your customers through a brand story. You create the critical aspects of that story through various design elements. The next step is to let users engage with the brand. A lot of companies turn to lead generation for capturing prospects and turning them into customers. But, once you get them on your site, how do you keep engaging? Solid visuals that help communicate your complex message and maintain communication with the user is key for engaging customers in the right manner. The corporate world used to prioritize a content-centric approach. Now, we are seeing a clear shift to image and video centered approaches to corporate communication. In this realm, they key to making a difference is great design. This will allow you to reinvent your brand image and communicate your brand value through ensuring continued and unwavering attention.

So, design is important for any business that is looking to make a difference despite the challenges of the global pandemic. Collaborating with tools and services that have a design-centric approach could be key in preserving high design standards for your business.